


you drive me up the wall, mate

by danfic



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: M/M, george is kind of only mentioned, i rated teen for swearing, i wrote this at 1 in the morning, idk how to tag, im sorry, its basically just fluff, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23453440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danfic/pseuds/danfic
Summary: Alex's day doesn't start off great, but a slight lapse in memory turns it around for the better.
Relationships: Alex Elmslie/James Marriott
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	you drive me up the wall, mate

**Author's Note:**

> i would like to disclose a warning again that i wrote this at one in the morning and so i may come back and edit/delete this when i wake up and inevitably regret everything so if you happen to swing by again and the story has changed its because i rethought all of my life decisions and spent even more time on this shit but hey anyway ENJOY :)
> 
> and i KNOW im SORRY about the title im TIRED

The day _began_ just fine. When Alex woke up, he’d been feeling pretty good. He’d gone to sleep at a reasonable time, he’d slept well, and he even ate (admittedly only half of a) Greggs sausage roll George had left as a sort of breakfast. A good ten minutes of him having a peaceful day.

Yeah… that was about where the good things stopped. He found out the hoodie he was going to wear was dirty, and when he’d put a different one on instead, George had crashed into him walking out of his bedroom carrying a bottle of Ribena and turned his perfectly fine pink hoodie into looking like a toddler’s blackcurrant Robinsons squash drool stained nightmare. He’d lost one of his favourite shoes, and wasn’t particularly amused when George admitted that he’d thrown it out of the window for a video (“what the fuck do you _mean_ you’ve tossed it?” “I didn’t toss it, mate! I’m telling you, there’s a new rainbow coloured pigeon native to London that _happened_ to fall out of our window!”). James walked into the apartment at 9 AM, fifteen minutes later than he was supposed to be, and whilst sure, that brightened up his horrible morning a little, it soon came to light that Alex’s wallet was gone (and whilst James found his own comment that George might have thrown it out of the window alongside the shoe _very_ funny, Alex did not).

Him and James had set off for IKEA at half past. They’d opted to drive for the sole reason James wanted to drive Alex’s new car, so Alex had begrudgingly let him, being the nice friend he was. It was only a forty minute drive, after all. Surely that couldn’t go wrong.

Right?

“Has he actually thrown my shoe out of the fucking window?” Alex asks him, about twenty minutes into their journey. “I mean, he’s a twat, but surely there’s laws against doing that.”

“Ooh, big George Memeulous’ going to get done for shoe tossing!” James chuckles.

“I mean it! It could hit someone walking underneath or something!”

“Well, with the size of your wallet, there should definitely be laws against it. The size of that bastard with 50k stuffed into it would probably be enough to kill the Hulk or something if the poor bloke happened to walk past at just the wrong time.”

Alex turns to look at him in disbelief, but the twat is too busy grinning at his own joke to catch Alex’s incredulous stare.

“Alright then, when we get back to the flat, I’ll get George to toss you and all. Can’t do much less damage.”

“Are you fat shaming me? You twat!”

“No! You’re just… a large man. I mean, I’ll probably have to be the one to toss you instead of him. He’s not strong enough, but everyone knows I’ve got enough muscle to bench press like ten of you…”

Alex continues talking, as per usual. He doesn’t notice that James has gone extremely quiet, or the worried look on his face, or that the car is slowing down, or the little blinking warning light on the dashboard.

“Um… mate?”

“I go to the gym _every_ minute of _every_ day. How else would I become the alpha male that—”

“Alex! Shut up!”

“What? I’m telling you a thriller and you’re not even listening to me!”

“We’re out of fucking fuel!”

Alex promptly _stops_ talking and diverts his attention, at last, to the little blinking light. The car sputters in protest, and it’s not long before they find themselves cramped in a layby at the side of the A40, both squashed into the back for slightly more room.

“Got any signal?” asks Alex, glaring at the little ‘no service’ icon at the top of his phone screen. James sighs and shakes his head, and Alex tosses his phone onto the floor in disgust.

“I think we’re stuck here. Fucks sake, Alex, you said you got fuel yesterday!”

“I—” He’s about to protest angrily that he _did_ , but then he remembers he forgot because he was so excited he managed to find a Lego set he’d really wanted cheap. He’s not about to admit this to James, so he grimaces and shrugs. “...I forgot.”

“Excellent.” James sits back and crosses his arms, then glances over at him. “Any ideas?”

To be perfectly honest, Alex gets a little bit distracted just looking at him before James raises an eyebrow at him, expecting a response.

“What— I don’t have a fucking clue! Wait for service to come back, I guess.”

“That could take ages.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to sit here. Honestly, you're such a dickhead.”

For two extremely chatty people, they spend the first few minutes just sat in silence: James angrily watching the cars go by and Alex quietly watching him. He can’t help but wonder if James is genuinely mad at him, so, after stewing nervously for a few moreminutes, he asks.

“Are you mad at me?”

“What?” James turns to look at him again. He has a weird thing about eye contact when someone’s speaking to him or he’s speaking to someone, and Alex kind of likes it, despite all the “marry eyes Marriott” comments.

“Are you actually mad?”

“No. No, it was an accident; you just forgot,” James answers, seeming half lost in thought. “It’s fine. We’ll just make George run down to the petrol station and come and rescue us with some fuel.”

“When the service comes back.”

“When the service comes back,” agrees James, and then although they’re a little quiet again, it’s much more bearable. James goes back to watching cars, so Alex lets himself indulge a little and he goes back to watching James.

He’s liked him for a while now. How could he not? He’s funny, he’s kind, he genuinely cares about the things he’s passionate about and he genuinely seems to care about _him_. Sure, they banter a lot about having a secret (or not so secret) relationship, but Alex really does want to actually kiss him more than he cares to admit to himself. He can sing, he has nice eyes... Alex really thinks he could go on and on with all of the reasons he has to fall in love with this stupid bastard of a man.

Snapping himself out of his gross love-fuelled stupor, he realises James is weirdly quiet, and he’s just been sitting staring at him. Mate of the year, he is.

“You alright, mate?”

“Hm?”

“I said are you alright? You’re really quiet. You need to talk about anything, or...?”

James opens his mouth, and Alex can already tell from the look on his face that he’s about to dismissively shake his head and flap at him and tell him he’s fine. He’s done it enough times to know what that looks like. However, James seems to catch himself and just looks at him for a few seconds before shrugging a little, and suddenly he seems a little smaller than he did before.

“I’m just tired, you know?”

Alex nods. For once in his life, he stays quiet and just looks at him, waiting for him to go on.

“This whole YouTuber thing gets tiring. I mean, it’s incredible, and I’m so fucking lucky I’m where I am now, but when I hit a million it really hit me that… there’s seriously one million people out there that looked at my face and decided they wanted to look at it again. It’s amazing, but… there’s a lot of pressure there, too. I mean, not a lot of people can look at this ugly mug and decide they want it to be a recurring thing.” He smiles sadly, and it kind of breaks Alex’s heart a little that it’s a normal thing for YouTubers to have to go through.

“Yeah. Yeah, I get what you mean,” Alex says softly. “ _Trust_ me, I do, and this is coming from one of the ugliest mugs on the platform, mate. It’s a terrifying thing when people actually want to watch you. Great, don’t get me wrong, but scary. I think that’s just part of being a YouTuber nowadays, though. Welcome to the big boy club, Marriott.”

James grins despite himself, and Alex does the same, glad he’s managed to put a smile back on his face. They’re sat a little closer now, knees touching, and Alex swears it takes everything in him to not just hug him on the spot, let alone _kiss_ him. 

“I don’t think you’re ugly, though,” James says. “You’re not. You know that, don’t you?”

Alex stays quiet - half from being taken thoroughly aback and half from not wanting to tell him that of course he is. Has he even seen his face?

“Alex, come on. There’s nothing wrong with you. Sure, you’ve had some dodgy trims, but you’ve cleared that up recently. I mean, I think you’re cute, and--”

He cuts himself off, completely freezing, and Alex feels like his mind’s just done the exact same thing because did _James Marriott just call him cute?_

“Ah. I just— I’ve just said that out loud, haven’t I?” James says, turning redder by the second.

“You did,” confirms Alex quietly. Does he like him? Was he just being nice? What the fuck does that mean? How the fuck is he supposed to answer? What's even happening?

“Oh.”

They’re quiet for a few seconds, and then Alex physically can’t keep his mouth shut any longer.

“You’re cute too, though.”

“What? Like— _what?_ ” James looks so stunned that Alex genuinely finds himself cracking up despite the extremely odd situation they’ve just found themselves in. “What? That’s not funny!”

“No! No, I mean it! You’re cute, mate!”

“Like, _cute_? Or…”

“Like, I’d— I’d kiss you, and, uh...” Alex really really wishes he had the capacity to shut up like a normal person. Was it too much to ask? Why can’t he have a filter?

“I’d— well, I—” stammers James, and Alex isn’t sure he can physically get any redder. “Why haven’t you, then?”

“Because I thought you were fucking straight!” He feels his face heating up too.

“I’m not!”

“I’m getting that now, funnily enough!”

“Well, clearly not, because you’re _still_ not kissing m—”

Alex decides to cut him off by doing just that. It’s a little awkward at first - Alex hasn’t done this in a while, and he has to deal with James chuckling at just how much their noses have bumped together at the same time as trying to adjust to make it more comfortable. Eventually James shuts up, Alex moves slightly, then James tilts his head slightly and... there. He cups one hand on James’ face, feels one of James’ hands gently run through his hair, and it's oddly perfect for a solid few seconds and then they’re pulling away.

They look at each other for a few seconds, wide eyed and kind of in shock, and then Alex can’t help it and starts laughing again. It doesn’t take long for James to join in, and soon they’re choked up in mild hysterics in the back of Alex’s car.

“Oh, fuck,” chuckles James, accidentally bumping his forehead on Alex’s as their laughter trails off. They stay like that for a few seconds, and Alex is definitely enjoying this whole eyes closed, quiet head touch thing, and then his phone goes off and scares the absolute shit out of them enough that they accidentally bang foreheads.

“It’s fucking George,” curses Alex, scooping his phone off the floor. “Absolute fucking cockblock!”

“At least it means we can get out of this layby.”

“I kind of forgot about the whole stranded thing, if I’m being honest with you.”

“Oh, easily done,” James deadpans, and Alex laughs, realising his crap morning is nothing compared to this.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading :) let me know what you thought of it and validate my horrible sleep schedule please and if u see any grammar errors let me know so i can correct it because it is now HALF past 1 and my last brain cell has just evaporated! thanks love u x
> 
> (last note - if you see "--" thats because i forgot to paste in a "—" because my keyboard does not have one so im sorry but u will have to live with 2 hyphens because im going to bed now)


End file.
